Via de' Tornabuoni
by DarkAngel942
Summary: Stefan dissapears for five days in a row when he and Damon are living together in Florence, after Elena dies. Damon gets increasingly worried- for Damon anyway. A MUST-READ FOR DAMON & STEFAN BROTHERLY-LOVE FANS! Please review! One-shot.


**VIA DE' TORNABUONI**

**Summary- One-Shot of Damon and Stefan in Florence. Stefan fails to come home one night and Damon goes out to look for him.**

**I know that in the book it says the place they stayed in called via tornabuoni, but in Italy they call it Via de' Tornabuoni.**

**All told from Damon's POV**

I returned to my apartment on the luxurious streets of Via de' Tornabuoni just after eleven at night- my hunger being newly satisfied. I had went looking for my evening meal at the bars close to my apartment, mainly Bar Gilli and Bar Mario . I had fed on many gorgeous, delectable girls- but none of them were particularly wonderful. I strutted into my apartment where my worthless brother was staying with me, and sat down in front of the TV. The humans on the TV set were sad, but funny even because of the ridiculous comedy.

While sitting there I thought of Stefan- he didn't normally stay out this late. He had absolutely no life since Elena had died- and he rarely smiled anymore. In fact, he never smiled. The only time he smiled was when he was asleep and dreaming of Elena. And then that dream got ruined by Elena and Katherine's screams- which of course prompted him to scream and thrash in his sleep. I never went to comfort him. Why would I? He's a worthless little shit and he took my mother away from me...and he took Elena. He always got whatever he wanted without even thinking about it- and some girls thought he was just as good-looking as me?! How on earth?! I've never looked to see myself if Stefan was handsome or not, hell, he was my little brother. He'd always be the little one toddling around in the gardens while my father and I had endless, boring conversations about my future.

As I looked at my watch, I realized Stefan had not yet returned. He was always in my apartment at around nine o'clock- never any later. Oh well, he'd probably show up sometime during the night- maybe he was busy making new 'friends' and pretending to be human. So I abandoned all thoughts of my brother and left the living room for bed.

The next morning- I made myself a cup of coffee in the expensive, fancy coffee maker in the kitchen. Even though I was a vampire, the taste of coffee is still nice and somehow makes me feel more awake after a good night's sleep. As I stood leaning against the counter-top, I decided to annoy Stefan- sneaking up on him in his bed, pouring cold water on him and giving him the shock of his life. I filled up a jugful of freezing cold tap water and creeped down the hall to his bedroom. I opened the door with my free hand and quietly walked straight in.

He wasn't there.

I felt my eyebrows furrow in confusion, but not in concern. My brother had probably slept somewhere else. Oh well, guess the Hilarious-Water-Throwing-Prank-To-Annoy-Stefan would have to wait till he got back.

That day I continued to eat away at pretty girls, taking them to dinner then feeding on them in my room. Stefan would not approve- I thought amused. He was always such a potato about feeding off of humans- but I could not care less about humans. They were the prey, I was the hunter. I was above them in the food chain, that's the way life works! Humans ate cows and rabbits so why didn't Stefan yell at them if he wanted to keep the world a 'Peaceful Place' as he wanted it to be.

That night I sat watching the television as I had done the previous night. I hated this routine- so I decided to create a bit of disruption to amuse myself tomorrow. Like throw a blood-drinking massacre at a nearby museum or something. Hmmm...I liked that idea. There were many pretty tourist girls in Florence as it was an old, interesting city. They would love a hot Italian Stallion to take them out on a date- but that was not going to happen, I thought slyly. There would be no bringing them back to my apartment this time, only feeding on them to cause some disruption in the peaceful city that was Florence: to entertain myself.

I went to sleep and woke up the next day- sure that Stefan would be sleeping quietly in his bedroom as usual. I sneaked in, but to my surprise he wasn't there again.

Now it was starting to get _really_ confusing.

Did Stefan finally have a life?! Or was he in some sort of trouble. There was no reason why I couldn't look for him myself, but I didn't want him to think that I cared about him.

So I did go to the museum: but feeling more confused by the second about the Stefan situation. He wouldn't leave without telling me would he? Unless he'd taken after me, his big brother, and decided that goodbyes were worthless.

Ha, as if.

But I made a mental note to check his closet for any signs of missing clothes.

The girls at the museum were delicious as I expected, and I enjoyed frightening a few guards and old women when I was there- displaying a flash of fang, causing them to really wonder if they were seeing things.

My entertainment-ego sorted for the day, I made my way back to the apartment. It was empty, and Stefan's scent was nowhere in the house- apart from his room, it lingered there because he spent more of his time in there and the door was closed, unable to let in any fresh air.

I entertained myself for the night by inviting one of the girl's round to my place for a meal. She was shocked when I bit her as soon as she came through the door: well, I didn't say _her_ meal, did I?

She didn't run away though, I wiped her mind, and she was my entertainment because- well, we got frisky in the bedroom. It was actually good that Stefan wasn't here: he would have complained of the noise and to be honest, I didn't want my baby brother to hear me have sex. Nor did I ever want to hear _him_ have sex.

Eww.

But no doubt, one day I probably would- considering how long our lives will last- and it was just _sick_. Stefan would always the baby of my family, and although I hated him- he would always be that to me. So eww, no thank you to that.

Of course I'd seen Stefan naked. You can't be alive for nearly half a millenium and _not_ see your brother naked at least once. That may seem gay, but it's the truth: you can't. Eventually one day you're gonna walk in on him changing clothes, and actually at one time in the fifteenth century- it was common for men to get changed in the same room.

The girl left in the morning. I looked in Stefan's room, still no sign of him. To tell the God's Honest truth- I was starting to get a little worried. A _little._ An absolute _smidgen _of worry that could barely be called worry, so don't get yourselves all excited.

The days went by, and to tell the truth I was getting more and more worried as each night flew by.

Yes, go 'aaaawwwwww' if you must.

After five days of no sign of my brother- I walked into his room to search his closet. His familiar, sweet scent was still here- and as I opened the closet, I was met with a great 'whoomph' of the Stefan scent coming from his clothes. I must admit, he had some pretty nice clothes in there, some items that even might be possible for _me_ to wear. Oh, borrowing each others clothes made us sound like the perfect brothers, ick.

And also made us sound a little gay.

So I put the my borrowing Stefan's clothes idea out of my mind and concentrated on what was on front of me. After a thorough search I found that none of Stefan's clothes were missing- and all of his possessions were dotted around the room. I was startled to see a picture of me on the windowsill- I never thought he'd have a picture and I never thought he'd want to keep it.

Oh, well. Just shows what a softie he is- I thought, amused, as I closed his bedroom door.

I decided to go on the lookout for him that night- and track him down. I could have done that days ago, but I was hoping he would have just slept at a friends house each night. But now it was getting past the point where I could just turn a blind eye to it. Stefan never disappeared for five days without warning: he had trouble leaving the room for ten seconds without letting everyone in the room know that he's leaving.

And even though I hated him most of the time- I knew him better than anyone in the world. Maybe even himself.

It was nighttime, I figured it would be the time that Stefan was a little awake, so I left my apartment then. I started to look around the posh college dorms first- thinking that if Stefan made a new 'friend' then they would be the most likely he met with. There was no sign of him.

Then I started to check the bars and clubs around the area. There wasn't a little of his scent there either.

Eventually I got bored of just prowling around looking for him, and I imagined his scent in my mind. Then a trail of his scent seemed to appear in front of me- and I followed it. The trail went on and on, and I had to stop a few times to change direction and think about where the scent was strongest.

I was making my way down a dark alley when I saw him- the trail had gotten stronger and stronger.

And here he was.

He was crouched on the ground- bent over. He would have been unrecognizable to anyone else- but I'm his brother and I've known him for longer than anyone could ever imagine. His hair was dirty, as were his clothes. But then I noticed a bloody leg. And bite marks on his neck.

Vampire.

I tried to contain my anger. Sure, my brother was a worthless fruit- but he was _my_ worthless fruit. Stefan was the only family I had left, and no matter how hard I tried- I never could seem to seriously hurt him nowadays. I guess you could say I'd become more attached. Sure, I had killed him in the fifteenth century, and he had killed me: but I had killed him first. Over the years I had grown more and more dependant on him, always checking up and annoying him. He thought it was because I hated him and wanted to cause as much misery as possible, but the truth is that being with Stefan is just...familiar. It makes me feel as if I belong- which doesn't happen very often.

I walked slowly toward him- and still he didn't look up. The bite mark on his neck was dry, but he was obviously too weak to stand up. I crouched beside him, waiting for him to look up and see me. But when he didn't and I was starting to get annoyed- I put my finger under his chin and lifted his face up to me.

What struck me was how gloomy his eyes were- the green looked dull and lifeless. But then his eyes met mine and I saw a flicker of hope cross his features. And then sadness- he probably thought I would finish him off and let him be with his Elena. As if.

"Little brother," I said calmly- beginning to inspect his wounds.

The leg wound was still bleeding- and he obviously was in too much pain to move it. It would heal, but only if I cleaned it and he got proper rest. He had cuts on his arms- all minor. But the worst thing was the neck bite. It was obvious the vampire who did this was hell-bent on doing as much damage as possible. His throat was torn open- and although it was healing very, very slowly, it looked painful.

My eyes met his again- and I started to try and help him up. He winced and cried out when I put an arm around him to try and hoist him up. Ordinarily, I would have been annoyed at him being such a softie and crying over his wounds like a lost puppy, but after inspecting him I understood how painful this really was for him.

Haha: Damon Salvatore- The Understanding Villain.

Eventually I realized that just _helping_ him up wasn't an option. I had to _carry_ him. There was no way that he could walk with a leg like that. I put one arm around his back, then the other behind his knees, and being careful to avoid straining his leg- I heaved him up.

He wasn't too heavy, after all- in fact he was quite light. He whimpered in pain a little bit, and then lolled his head against my shoulder. He looked a bit drunk, to be honest- probably due to his lack of feeding and loss of blood.

I carefully but quickly carried him back to the apartment- and I also made sure that no humans saw us.

When we got to the apartment, I knew what I had to do first. I needed to clean Stefan up, and that required me to remove his clothing. Oh, _great._

I carried my little brother to the luxury bathroom, flicking the tap on the bath to the right to start the hot water, and placed him gently on the floor before starting to remove his clothing. Even in the pain that he was in, he looked a bit embarrassed, but I had seen him naked before- so I wasn't too bothered.

Placing him in the bathtub was a whole different story though- the cuts reacted to the hot water. He managed to refrain himself from gasping in pain, but it was a struggle. But soon his cold, cut body began to get used to the hot water- and he relaxed a little. Although not too much, after all, who would actually be fully relaxed with being naked and bloody in front of their older brother?

I grabbed the cloth from the small table next to the bathtub, and I started to wash him with it gently. There was so much blood, more than I'd realized- as I actually had to change the bath water again because of the red water. Stefan's head lolled backwards a little- resting against the bathtub.

Finally, when the blood was all cleaned off- I sat there and looked at his face. He looked back- very drowsy due to his lack of blood.

"Who did this to you, Stefan?" I asked coldly.

He stared at me.

"I don't know. It was a man, and he was very peanut," he said, drowsy.

I blinked- sure I'd misheard him. Did he just say peanut?

"Peanut?"

"Yes," he murmured.

I looked at him.

"Do you mean...powerful?" I corrected.

"Ah, yes, that's probably it. Father liked peanuts," he murmured, seemingly starting to fall asleep.

I smirked. Despite the situation- Stefan was rather amusing when drowsy. I planned to get him drunk one day- he'll be barrels more fun. But funny or not, I wanted to know who did this to my brother. But from the state of him- it would have to wait till the morning.

I lifted him out of the bath swiftly, and toweled him dry. Then I picked up a pair of black sweatpants from his room and put them on him before carrying him to his room. I settled him in the bed- and he actually looked like a little boy being tucked in, the one I used to spend so much time hating before Katherine came along.

"Goodnight Damon. Thanks for finding me," he managed to murmur out.

"Goodnight, baby brother."

"Don't call me a baby," he murmured, annoyed, before drifting off to sleep.

I looked down at him.

"You'll always be a baby Stefan. You'll always be my baby brother," then I leaned down and kissed his forehead before leaving the room quietly.

Damon Salvatore- The Understanding Villain. Haha.

**Please review. :-D xx**


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